magneto,etc. not firing on right side

[Triton Thrasher]

no disrespect intended back atcha. check this product ngk spark plug resistor cover before making conclusions. my 2 friends also make their living repairing brit bikes only and obviously are successful at it with the years involved. we checked it out on an ohmmeter[?] before use. another friend but auto with 40 years experience. they won't damage my magneto. gracias

I don't think they'll damage the magneto either, but they will make spark less likely to occur, especially in marginal circumstances, such as an old magneto with reduced magnetism and when kickstarting or idling slowly.

Just try attaching the wires directly to the plugs. See if it helps.

[Triton Thrasher]

With a magneto, the spark on one cylinder is always weaker than that on the other.  Any problem with HT voltage will cause one cylinder to miss, before the other.

Why weaker? Because, brushes, plugs, wires etc. have diferenences? Because cam is not perfectly symetrical? Otherwise, are you suggesting that there is some aspect of the mag's armature or magnetic circuit design that is asymentrical? The difference being that aramture and magnetic circuit asymetry would be design related, while the others are chance or random occurances. It would be interesting (to me, at least) to know which you are referring to. 

Richard L.

Because the sparks on the respective sides are of opposite polarity to each other. It makes a difference, when you're needing all the HT you can get, to produce a spark.

[Triton Thrasher]

Set the left side inlet valve clearance when the right side inlet valve is fully open. It's very simple.

I'd be more convinced your friends were real experts if your bike was working properly.

[pedrochapala]

i am on here to depart some knowledge as well, while i am trying to fix this problem. the people i have mentioned as experts no doubt could run circles around you. i am doing what has been advised on this forum and their advice. we shall see tomorrow-si?
i have done a lot to this bike and some of my "experts" have helped me do it.
the cleaning seems the major issue right now and sorry to disappoint anyone that likes things to be more complex! i hope i can be of help to my a10m 0wners amigos!

[RichardL]

Pedro,

Let's slow down. Mas despacio, por favor. I'm hoping something is lost in translation in your writing. I do not argue against the expertise of your local friends and advisors, and if you were comparing them to me you might have a point. On the other hand, you are pretty new here and have not met many of our friends who are experts found here. I am just picking out one to introduce you to, there are several other multi-bike owners and restorers here who must be considered at the top of the world of A10 knowledge. Here is Richard in Western Australia (Richard I hope you don't mind my making an example of you): http://www.a7a10.net/forum/index.php/topic,2392.msg15363.html#msg15363  Perhaps your locals have a website where we can learn as much about A7/A10 engine performance as Richard shares in this one forum topic.

I think we all just need to be friendly, as fellow followers of the Piled Arms.

Regards,

Richard L.

[orabanda]

Richard L,
You are a nice bloke!
If you were with me now (enjoying our azure blue skies), I would give you a cuddle in a manly West Australian sort of way (or just hand you a beer!)!
Richard

[a10 gf]

#1: Get rid of the plug caps with resistors.
#2: After #1 is done, start looking for mag problems.

[Topdad]

Having read the post on page 1 from Richard i agree , has he thought of applying for the job that goes with a nice white house !! What a diplomat He'd make ,BobH.

[RichardL]

Gents,

Those are very kind words, thanks.  As for the White House,  no aspirations (other than maybe being their sound system designer) ,  besides,  I hear they do background checks.

As for the beer,  on Richard's suggestion I'll be out looking for a Western Australia pint to hoist tonight.  I'll let you know what I find.

Richard L.

[KenF]

I used to be of the school of thought that resistor sparking plugs, caps and leads probably don't make much difference. Then I did some experiments, and I was surprised how much difference they do make. Do have a look at:

Are suppressors and resistor sparking plugs OK to use with magnetos?

The conclusions I came to were: "a suppressor does appear to require the magneto to do considerably more to achieve a significantly poorer spark" and "the higher the voltages that the HT winding generates (with a suppressor), the greater the risk of breakdown of the insulation of the HT winding."

To amplify on Triton Thrasher's point about one spark being weaker than the other, the spark current is flowing from the centre electrode to the earth electrode at one plug, and from the earth electrode to the centre electrode at the other plug. The earth and centre electrodes run at different temperatures, and they have different shapes that the electrons need to jump from, and that makes a difference.

Another possible cause of a K2F misbehaving on just one cylinder is if a non-standard (too long) safety screw has been fitted on one side so that it's easier for a spark to jump the safety gap than the plug gap. The Lucas specification was that the gap should be between 6.5 and 7.5 mm (0.256" and 0.295" - 1/4" and 19/64") from the tip of the screw to the slip ring.

Cheers
Ken
Brightspark Magnetos

[duTch]

Geez thanks Ken, I had a look also at he back and next pages, that little video was fun,saves me going to the pictures tonight!
   Serious though ,I discovered some info that I'd never really thought about before-you know 'The Maggie' is one of those 'oly grail' kind of things that is there and should work no matter what- and when it doesn't, the whole world melts down and as I did " nah it's not the maggie-it's fine" pretending that it has to be something else 'cos 'The Maggie' is  stuff that's rarely explained in a 'sensicle' way.
  Pedro, I hope you get it sorted soon,even though we're all learning lots of stuff we never dreamed of. I reckon keep it simple and find the bug, and then do the mods one by one??
 Also I been trying to have a better look at your ride, but a pretty girl is in the way-any chance of a couple of naked(bike)pics??
  ,salut, duTch

[pedrochapala]

thanks for posting the link! gives me something to think about. i'm begining to think i'm joe bultsflk[sp?].he's the guy in the old lil abner comics with the rain cloud over his head. on my test run the other day,the bike up and died and i walked home thinking i was gonna hafta put it on the truck. took tools and extra posts. took the end cover off and discovered i hadn't tightened the points enough and they were wide open. fixed that and rode it home so yesterday i go again and my custom shifter linkage fell of. rode home in first and got the truck to retrace my route. found it-yeehaa!
went out today and rode 12 miles on country road,  no problema. now i gotta tighten that shift lever with a bit of machining. those rings are not seated yet[51 miles] but i know that.
by the way-i had the ht wire tied directly to the plug after i burned and crashed. yesterday and today i put the spark plug covers back on. it's real good copper ht wire i'm using.

[muskrat]

There's bound to be a few hickups with the old girl. You'll sort the bugs out.
The gear lever fell off my '51 100 miles from home and could not be found. A 14mm ring spanner got me home.
Cheers

[duTch]

Good to hear Pedro,it's certainly encouraging when you can actually do some miles before....nothing happens and..you  get do do more miles!!
   I thought the other night, and it may have been mooted in the other posts- can't remember, but I've had brand new plugs that malfunctioned prematurely(in the box), but i guess you got it sorted anyway.
           Cheers ,duTch

[pedrochapala]

75 miles and counting! running like a dream